Ever since we found out that Walt in "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was the brother of Seymour Glass from "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," I've been trying to find links between all the stories. My most promising theory is that Seymour Glass is Sergeant X in "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor." When I was reading "For Esmé," I couldn't help but draw similarities between the two, or at least what I envisioned Seymour to be like before the war.
At the beginning of "For Esmé," the narrator mentions his wife, "a breaktakingly levelheaded girl" and a mother-in-law who's "not getting any younger" (For Esmé 87). Seymour also has a wife, Muriel, and a mother-in-law. Something about the way Sergeant X mentions his mother-in-law reminds me of how Seymour's relationship with his mother-in-law would be like. Sergeant X says that he doesn't get to see his mother-in-law much, so he doesn't want to cancel her upcoming stay with him and his wife for Esmé's wedding. On page 91 of "For Esmé," the narrator's mother-in-law asks him to send her some cashmere yarn the first chance he gets away from "camp." She doesn't really get the gravity of the war and exhibits the common materialistic traits of adults in Salinger's stories by asking for a luxury. This is similar to Seymour's mother-in-law who's also portrayed as privileged and vain. Sergeant X has a brother just like Seymour does, too. There is a parallel between the family connections that Seymour has with Sergeant X's family. This could just be a coincidence since many men oftentimes are married and have mother-in-laws.
Seymour and Sergeant X both make friends with much younger characters. Seymour prefers the young innocence of three-year-old Sybil to Muriel. Muriel, her mother, and all the other adults at the beach represent materialism and vanity. Salinger's description of Muriel wearing a Sak's blouse delicately painting her nails is the picture of post-war wealth. Seymour feels that only Sybil sees him for himself, and not the crazy man Muriel's mother warns Muriel about, because Sybil's head is not preoccupied with materialism. When the narrator is in England for D-Day training, he stops by a church to listen to choir practice. He's entranced by the children singing which he says had cast a spell on the church, finding solace in their song. Sergeant X becomes instant friends with the Esmé and her little brother Charles. When Sergeant X is in the bunker, his narration shifts from the first person to third person showing his mental state. We learn that he's suffered a nervous breakdown. However, receiving the genuine letter and broken watch from Esmé deeply touches him and he seems to start recovering.
However, the timing is off for Seymour and Sergeant X to be the same person. During Muriel and her mother's phone call, Muriel says that Seymour calls her "Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948" so I'm assuming that the story takes place during 1948 (Bananafish 5). Sergeant X meets Esmé in 1944 and is invited to her wedding six years later so 1950 and Seymour would've already been dead. At the end of the day, "For Esmé" is just another example of Salinger's theme of childhood innocence in Nine Stories.
At the beginning of "For Esmé," the narrator mentions his wife, "a breaktakingly levelheaded girl" and a mother-in-law who's "not getting any younger" (For Esmé 87). Seymour also has a wife, Muriel, and a mother-in-law. Something about the way Sergeant X mentions his mother-in-law reminds me of how Seymour's relationship with his mother-in-law would be like. Sergeant X says that he doesn't get to see his mother-in-law much, so he doesn't want to cancel her upcoming stay with him and his wife for Esmé's wedding. On page 91 of "For Esmé," the narrator's mother-in-law asks him to send her some cashmere yarn the first chance he gets away from "camp." She doesn't really get the gravity of the war and exhibits the common materialistic traits of adults in Salinger's stories by asking for a luxury. This is similar to Seymour's mother-in-law who's also portrayed as privileged and vain. Sergeant X has a brother just like Seymour does, too. There is a parallel between the family connections that Seymour has with Sergeant X's family. This could just be a coincidence since many men oftentimes are married and have mother-in-laws.
Seymour and Sergeant X both make friends with much younger characters. Seymour prefers the young innocence of three-year-old Sybil to Muriel. Muriel, her mother, and all the other adults at the beach represent materialism and vanity. Salinger's description of Muriel wearing a Sak's blouse delicately painting her nails is the picture of post-war wealth. Seymour feels that only Sybil sees him for himself, and not the crazy man Muriel's mother warns Muriel about, because Sybil's head is not preoccupied with materialism. When the narrator is in England for D-Day training, he stops by a church to listen to choir practice. He's entranced by the children singing which he says had cast a spell on the church, finding solace in their song. Sergeant X becomes instant friends with the Esmé and her little brother Charles. When Sergeant X is in the bunker, his narration shifts from the first person to third person showing his mental state. We learn that he's suffered a nervous breakdown. However, receiving the genuine letter and broken watch from Esmé deeply touches him and he seems to start recovering.
However, the timing is off for Seymour and Sergeant X to be the same person. During Muriel and her mother's phone call, Muriel says that Seymour calls her "Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948" so I'm assuming that the story takes place during 1948 (Bananafish 5). Sergeant X meets Esmé in 1944 and is invited to her wedding six years later so 1950 and Seymour would've already been dead. At the end of the day, "For Esmé" is just another example of Salinger's theme of childhood innocence in Nine Stories.
I found this theory really interesting! It would be really sad to think that the narrator in "For Esme" had killed himself however. Like you said, the timing doesn't really work out, but it's interesting to see how Salinger incorporates the same elements into his characters in subtle parallels. Nice post!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting post! I never thought of it like this. I had my doubts at first not really seeing the connection between Sergeant X and Seymour, but you provide a lot of compelling similarities between the two. Salinger is pretty ambiguous when it comes to his stories, but it's little details and connections like this that make his short stories more exciting to read. Good job :)
ReplyDelete